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Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Crewel Work

I have spent some time since last week completing the main flower head, and now have the French Knots in the correct colour!

Perhaps pale green wasn't the best colour to use for the grid on the second leaf - seemed like a good idea at the time!

Wasn't sure how to tackle this leaf,
but I stitched the grid first, and then
surrounded it with three rows of chain stitches

A little closer!

Then I hit a stumbling block on the last flower!

Shelagh Amor's picture, which is guiding my stitches, shows Long and Short stitch, on the bell shape flower, which I want to try out but can't quite fathom how!

Picture from Shelagh Amor's book

I know the theory but the photo I'm following appears to show the tiniest amount of shading at the top of the area to be stitched, and I just can't get my head around how to start. No doubt I will work it out. I've looked at many examples but they don't seem to be stitching in the same direction as my flower!

Last flower: I stitched the outline in split stitch,
and embroidered pink chain stitches.

Having thought about this some more, and looked at yet another book on the subject, I have decided I will start just above the pink flower where it meets the lower edge of the bell shape, and I understand the stitches should slant towards the stem.

Apart from my crewel work I have managed a few stitches on Izzy's dress:

This is part of the dress I am making for my doll (Izzy).

I find I can't embroider without the support of a frame, can you? So, as the stitching was an afterthought, I had to use a picture frame to support the embroidery - just hoping I can iron the creases out after stitching!

I have also spent a few minutes on my thread catcher.

It is a while since I quilted and I almost forgot I had
these pins for basting!

That's all for now and I haven't even looked at my Christmas stitching yet!

20 comments:

I'm enjoying seeing your crewel work - I did a little of that many years ago but haven't played with it since. Seeing what you're doing just might inspire me! (re the creasing issue with using a hoop - I've been using the table frame....free instructions on Shawkl's site....and I now sew some scrap fabric onto the edge of what I'm embroidering to bring it up to a size that will fit on the frame. Then it's a simple matter to cut off the scrap fabric once I'm done stitching and I avoid creasing)

Hi Mary Anne, thank you for your lovely comment. I generally do add scraps to the edges, it was a spur of the moment idea to take the stitching with me on a train journey, and I didn't have time to add them. I might still need to though, to finish the job - we'll see! Perhaps I will look again at Shawkl's table frame! Barbara xx

Your crewel work turns out very beautiful, love to watch your progress. Sorry to hear you have problems with the long and short stitch. Do you know there are great long and short stitch lessons at Needle 'n Thread? That's how I learned this stitch. I hope this helps you too!

Hello Annet, Thank you for your lovely comments. Yes, I looked at the lessons on Needle 'n Thread for long and short stitch, but I think Wendy has hit the nail on the head asking if it had something to do with the shading. I was thinking of starting from the bottom of the flower, but I expect it should be from the top?!Barbara xx

Thank you for your lovely comments, Deanna. Perhaps I should have used another stitch, but I want to learn new stitches occasionally, and was quite determined not to let this stitch beat me. Like you, sometimes I use a hoop and sometimes not, depending on fabric and type of stitch I'm working on.

your crewel work is looking lovely, I really enjoyed the piece that I did. I wasn't sure what the problem was with long and short stitch - is it because there's only a small amount of one shade and the rest is another shade?

Thank you for popping by, and thank you for your lovely comment. I think you are right, it was the shading that confused me. Because the stitch is new to me I wasn't sure quite which way to start, whether to stitch from the top of the flower or the bottom?

I found your crewel work this week when I was trying to work out how to do this stitch - it's lovely, and very inspiring too!

Hello Jo, Thank you for your kind comment. It's difficult to get used to the fact that there is no exact place for the stitches! But I love the fact I can regulate my stitch sizes to be as large or as small as I like depending on the type of thread. I still find it very strange stitching with wool but I'm pleased with the results. It was nice of you to call by, I will be over to visit you shortly. Barbara xx

About Me

Hi, I'm Barbara. Welcome to my blog. I live on the edge of the North Downs in Surrey, England, with d.h. and our cute, bossy, chatty lady cat.
This is mostly a stitching blog, but there will be the occasional posts about walks - both country and town.
I hope you will find something you enjoy reading here, and that you will come back and visit me again!